Administrative costs for Windsor’s energy distribution companies have become a bit of a municipal election issue in recent weeks with several council candidates saying the costs are too expensive.

At least two political hopefuls say Enwin has higher administrative costs than any other similar sized utility in the province, citing a report that surveyed Ontario’s local distribution companies in 2013. On Friday, Coun. Alan Halberstadt took that campaign discussion to board members of the Windsor Canada Utilities company, which oversees both Enwin Energy and Enwin Utilities.

Windsor Canada chairman Mayor Eddie Francis repeatedly explained how other cities categorize their costs differently when submitting operating budgets for the MEARIE Group that conducted the survey.

“Our administrative costs look higher because what we put in our administrative bucket is different than what other people hide in their operations budget,” Francis said.

Costs for things like Enwin Utilities call centre are considered administrative, but other companies label such expenses in other parts of the operations budget, Halberstadt was told.

Obviously annoyed by the claims made by council candidates like Gabe Maggio, running in Ward 3, and Matt Ford, running in Ward 1, the mayor criticized people for looking at one isolated cost, instead of looking at the entire budget. He urged Halberstadt to dispel the allegations.

“It’s a dumb claim, so I’m gonna give you the information and I hope once you realize that it’s dumb, you’ll correct the claim,” Francis said. “I don’t know how to counter these claims that are based in fiction.”

Halberstadt recognized board members’ frustration with the criticism, but said he wants answers. Staff are now preparing a report that will compare costs with other utilities using a much more comparable method.

“Yeah, there is a lot of … misinformation out there, so I’m here and I’m asking the questions to try to clarify them and I think that’s my job,” Halberstadt told reporters after the meeting. “It has become a political issue for this election.”

Ford didn’t accept the board’s analysis when it was explained to him later. He said he’ll continue to show people the report that indicates administrative costs for Enwin Utilities was estimated at $213 per customer. That figure is more than double Cambridge and North Dumfries utilities, which had the second highest cost at $105 per customer.

“That’s (Enwin’s) numbers they’re reporting,” Ford said in a phone interview. “Accounting rules are pretty simple. You either have those administrative costs or you don’t.”

Enwin staff reiterated that administrative costs are recorded differently between utility companies. The MEARIE Group report puts Enwin’s operating and maintenance costs at $45 per customer, which is the lowest of the similar-sized utilities and less than half of eight companies that spend between $98 and $116 per customer.

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